Wagga author Suzanne Houghton releases picture book Where Are All the Christmas Beetles?

Ms Houghton was approached by the CSIRO to illustrate a few books, and she recalled how an interview talked about how Christmas beetles were fast disappearing.

She believes that the public needs to value insects and isn't as responsive to saving the insects as it is to saving other iconic Australian animals like koalas.

"Christmas beetles are only found in Australia, they are as iconically Australian as our other animals and because of the insects, they play such an important part to the ecosystem," Ms Houghton said.

The book is the latest of Ms Houghton's work as an award-winning author where she has previously published books working with the CSIRO such as her first book on wasps.

She recalls are really long process with a certain criteria such as character depicting native species not allowed to behave like humans in children's books.

Ms Houghton hopes that this book can inspire those to pay more attention to Christmas beetles and the little things and hopes their attitudes would change.

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She also hopes that when people can spot Christmas beetle they can also take a photo of the it and help Invertebrates Australia and the CSIRO conduct a beetle census.

"There'd be a whole generation of kids that have never seen Christmas people that don't even know what they are," she said.

"I used to see them heaps and last year, I saw one down by the river, just one for the whole season."

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